“What ‘cha doing there, Emily?” Levi asked.
He moved closer and sandwiched her with his cousin. He tilted her chin using one hand and squeezed her firm breast with another.
She moaned. “That’s gonna cost you.”
“I can pay, Emily. In more ways than you can imagine, I can pay you with every inch rubbing up against my pocket.”
Luke grunted. “Damn, you sure are full of yourself today, huh?”
“I’m full of something, that’s for sure,” Levi said with a twinkle in his eye. “Emily, you know what it is, don’t ‘cha?”
Her arm started moving and she pressed the back of her head against Luke’s shoulder. He pressed his lips to the nape of her neck and she moaned out loud. It sounded like a thirsty cry, a lonesome sound leaving the lungs of a woman who wanted but didn’t know how to act on her hunger.
Levi stroked her cheek and then lowered his head. “Emily, let me and Luke take care of you.”
“Can you do that, Emily?” Luke asked. “Will you, sweetheart?”
Luke glanced up and saw Percy heading up the hill. Clay was with him waving his hands behind his back, fanning them really. He glanced over his shoulder only once and he looked like a mad rooster teetering off in a direction where he didn’t want to go. He obediently followed Percy back to the rooming house.
Levi kissed her cheek. “Don’t start without me. I’ll be right back. I’m gonna find out what we’re doing about this here house so we can carry you off to bed as fast as we can.”
Luke shook his head. “I thought, on occasion, you had some common sense. A woman don’t wanna hear how quick a man is gonna fuck her.”
Levi stared at her blankly. “You don’t?”
“I kind of like it, actually,” she said before she cut her eyes back toward Levi. “It makes me feel wanted.”
He cleared his throat. “You’re wanted, Emily. Tell her, Luke.”
“I don’t have to tell her. I plan on showing her.” His knees locked the second he bent down and he rose back up with Emily in his arms. “And I’m gonna do it right now.”
Chapter Five
The second he put her down, he clasped his hands behind her neck and drew her into a kiss. “My mouth is going to stay on you so much that I become a habit, a sip you can’t miss in the morning or live without in the evening.”
She broke the connection with a grin. “We promised not to start anything without Levi.”
“I never promised a damn thing and besides, every time I turn around that little shit is telling us not to start without him. Hell, in case you haven’t noticed, he can’t sit still long enough to think about fucking a woman.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah, I mean come on now. He could’ve stayed right where he was a few minutes ago and the two of us would be screaming for Oh Susanna about right now.”
“Who’s Susanna?”
“Scratch it. It’s a song, a melody that stays in my head when I come, generally.”
“You mean another woman’s name comes to mind in the minutes of passion?”
“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “I mean, no…it’s a song. You ain’t heard of Oh Susanna?”
“No,” she replied. “Who is she?”
“Ah now. You ain’t heard the lyrics of Oh Susanna? It goes something like ‘Oh Susanna oh don’t you cry for me’, I’m coming in Colorado with a woman on her knees…Oh Susanna—”
She laughed and headed inside. “That’s not the way the song goes.”
Luke followed her. “Ah, so you have heard of it?”
“Yes, I have. And the song goes something different from the way you sing it.”
“Well, that’s the way I think of it when the time is right,” he admitted with a devilish grin.
She slowly walked around Percy’s place. “I feel like I’m in somebody else’s home.” She took a closer look at the china in the cupboard.
“You won’t for long.” Levi rejoined them with a wide smile plastered across his face. “Clay is up there at the old hotel talkin’ to Percy. I reckon by the sounds of it, he’s gonna buy the house for ya.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “I’d like to talk to him before he makes a final decision. Percy is gonna charge him plenty for this place.”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t think so, Emily. Besides, it don’t matter to us none. We have almost every dime we ever earned.”
“You mean took?” She swallowed hard when she corrected him. They seldom discussed what the Justice trio did for a living.
Levi stole a glance at his cousin. “Here, now. Where’d you get such a notion?”
“It’s true, isn’t it?” She sat down on a stool in the middle of the large open room. “I mean, don’t you rob stagecoaches and rich people?”
“We’ve been known to, what about it?” Clay’s voice came from behind her and startled her into standing.
“I didn’t see you there,” she stated. “I…”
“Don’t worry about him, Emily. He’s always this way when he lets go of the gold in his pocket,” Levi explained.
Clay walked over to the window and kept his back to her. “Let’s get one thing straight here, Emily. I just bought this here house for you. I did it only ‘cause you told me you wanted a home.
“Me and the boys don’t care much for staying anywhere long but Cripple Creek is a nice enough place. We’re gonna try it for a piece, see how things move along for us, I reckon…just for a little while though, you might as well understand these things now. Anyhow, it’s yours now, I reckon.”
“I didn’t mean for you to buy a place and give it to me. I just wanted to have a place to call home,” she explained.
Luke grabbed her around the shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug. “Well, now you do.”
“Listen here, Emily,” Clay held a firm tone. “We can promise you all sorts of things, and right now, seeing as we want to bed you, we might even convince you to believe some of what we say. Truth is, none of us could tell you whether or not we meant them. We ain’t the kind of men to settle down and make a woman think she’s got any kind of future with us. You understand what I’m saying here?”
She swallowed stiffly and fought back tears. Then, she nodded quickly. “I’ll…I’ll stay until you get tired of me.”
Luke set his jaw. “Is this necessary, right now?”
“I imagine now is as good a time as any,” Clay informed. “See, Emily, I think too much of ya and feel like we have to set things straight. Before we take advantage of you, take your body and all, I gotta tell ya the way it is. I’m only doin’ it ‘cause we’re all friends here. We ain’t got no reason to have secrets and lies between us.”
“Uh-huh, and your timing sucks, Clay,” Luke told him. “If you only knew how much.”
“It’s okay,” Emily patted Luke’s arm and smiled at Levi before she walked over to Clay and wrapped her arms around his waist. She kissed his chin and rested her head on his chest. “I know you’d never want to keep me, Clay. All those women you’ve had in your life, whispering sweet nothings in your ear, those women know more about what you want and they can give you what you need.”
He quickly untangled her body and removed her grip from him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She blinked. “I know you don’t want to keep me around because I’m not like those fancy women you’re used to and it’s okay. You’re right. We’re all friends.” She swallowed her pride and damn near swallowed her tongue too. “Now, I’ll hurry back here shortly. I have a few things I wanna ask Percy.” She backed away from them then and kept her head down.
“Wait there, a second,” Clay told her. “You got it wrong, honey.”
“I think I’ve got it right enough. Now, don’t any of you fret because I’ll come on back and start some supper as soon as I talk to Percy.”
“Now what the hell do you need to talk to him about?” Clay inquired.